DIY Hand-Painted Clay Heart Necklaces

I wanted to give little Valentines to a group of girls I work with in my church, but I didn’t want them to be store bought and I didn’t want them to be pricey and I didn’t want them to be hard to make and I wanted them to be cute and hearts had to be involved. Ya. No sweat.

So, I turned to the box I affectionately refer to as craft crap, dug out a couple of packs of clay I had been hoarding and got to work on dreaming up these little heart necklaces. The verdict? Making these met all of my requirements, they were so affordable/easy/cute/etc., AND the gals all squealed with delight when they opened them and put them around their necks immediately. Success.

I especially love this project because you can whip up a bunch of these little charms in almost no time and use them for all sorts of Valentines crafts. You can paint them or leave them how they are out of the oven, and bake clay is sooo easy and foolproof to work with. Have I given you enough positive feedback? If not, here’s a lot of pictures of what I did to convince you:

I used:

Oven-Bake Clay (you can get this at any craft store for around $1.50 a block)

Heart Clay Cutter (you can get a set here or at any craft store and use the shapes for other projects, or you can just eyeball it and cut out the hearts with a knife/cookie cutter/etc.)

Necklace Chain + Fasteners

Rolling Pin

Something to poke holes in to the hearts (I used a paperclip)

Craft paint + brushes

1. Roll out your clay to the desired thickness of your charms

2. Cut out your hearts

3. Poke holes through the clay where you want to string the necklace. Don’t forget to do this before you bake since baking them will make them too solid to poke holes.

4. Put hearts on a cookie sheet or baking pan and bake at 275 degrees for about 15 minutes.

5. Once you have taken the hearts out of the oven and they have cooled completely, paint them if desired.